Version 2.1.1 Released

The OpenRepeater team is happy to announce the recent release of version 2.1.1! What are some of the new features in 2.1.1 you may ask?

Backup & Restore

One of the new features is the addition of the backup & restore feature. This allows the backup of UI settings, custom modules, custom audio files, and ALSA mixer settings into a special backup file (.orp). Files can be kept locally on the controller as 'snapshots' which can act as quick restore points to roll the settings back. This is a great way to feel more confident about getting back to a known state should settings be changed. The backups can also be downloaded for archiving or transfer to another controller setup.

Support for Add-on Modules

There has also been some major updates to the module framework. While on the surface it may look the same as the previous version, there is more going on under the hood. ORP comes with a few standard “core” modules, but the ability has now been added to upload and install custom ORP modules developed for the OpenRepeater system. As a result the ORP Remote Relay module has been removed from the default installation. This is now made available as an add-on module and must be downloaded and installed separately. We have some other modules in the works. This also opens up the door for other developers to be able to create add-on modules for OpenRepeater. We are working on developer documentation to aid in that process.

Simplex Node

We have also added a simplex mode of operation. This feature adds a dropdown at the top of the interfaces tab. In addition to the standard 1 repeater port + additional simplex links, the dropdown also has a “simplex node” selection. This allows using a single radio in a simplex logic mode. When combined with the EchoLink module, this feature is useful for creating a single radio simplex EchoLink node.

Other Bug Fixes

There has been a fix for erroneous IDs that did not match ID settings in the UI. These were another type of ID not associated with the long and short ID settings. They are caused by a bug in the current release of SVXLink at the time of this ORP release. We added a patch to our build script to correct this in the interim. There have also been a number of other fixes and minor improvements.

We also have a version history on the site. You can check that out for a comprehensive list of all the features & improvements.